AIBU - free school meals application against my wishes.

[GlitterSand]

Two years ago I became eligible to claim free school meals,
I do not need the assistance so declined the offer.
The local council sent me a silly amount of letters about being entitled to claim, I phoned them and asked them to stop, explained that I didn't need to claim and asked them to make a note on my 'file' not to contact me again.
However, within a few months it started again I ignored them until I received a letter that basically said 'you are entitled to claim this so we are going to put in a claim on your behalf'
This annoyed me and I sent them a letter telling them that I do not give them permission to ever make a claim for FSMs on my behalf, that I wanted it marked on my file that I never want a claim for FSMs to be made in my name.
Someone from the council called me and apologised he said he made a note on my file and I would not be contacted again.

My DC has just started secondary school and for the second day in a row, his student account was not charged for the meal he had.
I just called the school and they have told me that his account has not been charged because he is in receipt of FSM, I told her this is a mistake and she is going to look into it and call me back.

I'm currently on hold to the council.

I'm so angry, how dare they put in a claim without my knowledge or permission and against my explicit request not to.
AIBU to be so annoyed?

I'm just posting to vent really, to try to calm down before I speak to anyone, but I'm just so angry that they can go against my wishes and put in a claim for a benefit that I do not want.

You must be receiving benefits, or the council wouldn’t have advised you of your eligibility for this.
Why is this particular benefit beneath you?

While it's for you to fill in the form, I think from the school and council stance, it's your child that is entitled to the fee school meal, so they are making sure he is getting his entitlement.

Jesus, op, I must have missed a post where you beheaded an orphan.

Fancy thinking you should have some sort of say over someone else claiming a benefit in your child's name.

Or, donate the money you'd spend on dinners to the school. Then they get double their money and you're not personally directly benefitting. If that squares it for you.

What is “donate generously”? £20, £200 or £2,000? You’ve been asked repeatedly to support the school by applying for the free meals and you’ve repeatedly refused. So don’t for a minute think throwing in a tenner or even a fifty note on top of your child’s expenses for a school trip is anywhere close to what funds you’re preventing the school from accessing in your child’s name.

Substitute Free School Meals for what this really is - Pupil Premium. £935 per year to your son's school, which will support not only him but others. Why wouldn't you?

This

I am sure the criteria for FSM are not easily come by and if you are financially entitled and your DC suffers no stigma then you should accept the funding. My DC are now older and applying to Uni. You ought to be aware that under rules for widening access to higher education many unis quite rightly discriminate in favour of students who qualified for fsm's / are lower income. Unless your financial circumstances have improved I can't see why, other than pride, you do yourself or your DC any favours in refusing the FSM allowance. If you feel you have the money.....save it for his future.

Criteria for Free School Meals:

our child might be able to get free school meals if you get any of the following:

Income Support
income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
income-related Employment and Support Allowance
support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

So which one is it then OP? Is the real story that you're on the fiddle with the Benefits? That you've split from your ex and are claiming Income Support or something similar, and are failing to declare the generous maintenance?

How do the council know your household income, op?

They certainly don’t know mine...
If the significant amount of extra cash you throw in on top of your child’s trips comes from benefits; you’re the worst kind of deluded fool.

I am wondering that if you are so very well off that you don't need this pupil premium, that is triggered by being on certain benefits, why you even claim the benefits in the first place.

We are on some benefits, but not entitled to PP, we would certainly have been glad to claim it is we had been!

"Why should I allow a benefit to be fraudulently claimed in my name just to benefit others?"

You shouldn't. I don't understand all the posters who seem to be saying that it is okay for a school to go ahead and claim FSM on a parent/pupil's behalf, without that parent's permission (if that is indeed what some posters are saying).

For a school to do that would be a benefit fraud, the same as any other benefit fraud ... the child's parent or guardian must claim, not the school ... and if you really think that happened, then I think you should at least question it, OP, perhaps even report it.

On the other hand, GlitterSand, I do not at all understand how your local council (or either of the two schools your child has been enrolled with) would be at all aware of any entitlement you may or may not have, unless you have claimed something ... some kind of benefit ... despite the humongous maintenance payments you receive.

If that's the case, then I don't really understand why you would view whichever benefit that you have claimed as 'okay', but FSM as 'not okay'.

It is possible to have hundreds of thousands in the bank but still have an income of less than £16k and therefore be eligible for free school meals. And you don’t have to ‘declare’ child maintenance to anyone.

Just wanted to say well done to GlitterSand. Appalling how a school will not respect the wishes of a parent not to claim FSM.

I am sure others have said this but this will be tied to Pupil Premium, so the school are trying to sign you up to FSM so they can access pupil premium monies, so THEY benefit, (obvs it all comes from the taxpayer in the end!) because your child's "eligibility" for FSM triggers a flow of Pupil Premium money into the school.

YANBU about a claim you have not authorized being made by your child's new secondary school, IMO. Stick at it.

@PolkerrisBeach Unfair to OP to allege fraud. Child maintenance income does not affect a claim for UC. I suspect you need to retract.

Your local council will have no notion of your earnings or your bank balance, unless you’ve given them this information already in order to claim benefits.

Lots of parents whose children are entitled to claim fsm choose not to. It is in schools’ interests to encourage parents to claim so they often send out the forms etc. I do understand the op’s point of view.

There is a potential benefit to your child that you will be doing him out of at a later stage of his education. There are many internships/access to course at universities etc that your Dc would be able to access if he/she has been in receipt of FSM in the 6 years prior to attending. Even if you do not need the monetary benefit at this stage please accept them for what it may be able to give him in the future

eg. KPMG access accountancy : www.kpmgcareers.co.uk/apprenticeships/apprenticeship-programmes/kpmg-discovery#kpmg-discovery-week

If you have money why claim benefits at all

Also - FSM are not available to parents who work and have a very low income so by claiming it, and increasing the School's funding, you will be helping families who aren't entitled to FSM but who will be worse off financially than you are!

To be fair you sound snobby not wanting your kid "labelled" as a fsm student. Stop getting so wound up over such a little thing.

How do they know you are entitled to claim FSM if you have never put a claim in?

Because the council sent me dozens of letters telling me I was eligible to claim it, I told them I was not interested in putting in a claim.

You dont answer the question of why, if you are in receipt or generous maintenance, you are deemed eligible for FSM. Are you not declaring this?
My maintenance is declared on my tax return every year.

Why does it not bother more you why you are showing up as eligible?
It does bother me, which is why I choose not to claim and am angry that a claim was made without my consent.
I do not believe I should be entitled to it which is why I do not want to claim it, as I have already said.

And when you say you donate "generously" what does that actually mean? Are you donating the thousands that the school is losing out on?
I mean that in the time my DC was in primary school the school benefited far more from our donations than it would have from any benefits.

You don't address any of these questions....
There you go I just did. HTH

Maintenance does not count as income so even if you are a former WAG on maintenance then you can claim benefits.

Where does maintenance go on your tax return?

Is the real story that you're on the fiddle with the Benefits? That you've split from your ex and are claiming Income Support or something similar, and are failing to declare the generous maintenance?

Whilst I don‘t agree with the OPs actions, please be careful what you assume. It’s utterly embarrassing yourself when you have no idea of benefit rules. The OP can be on benefits and have no need whatsoever to declare maintenance.

How do the school know that the council sent you dozens of letters? They won’t have copied in the school
And you haven’t explained how the council know your circumstances?
They don’t spam people randomly, desperate to give away free meals?